Grosse Pointe woman appeals ruling: My mom was killed in a cover-up and I'll prove it

In January 2016, Michelle Romain is photographed with a picture of her mother JoAnn Matouk Romain, who went missing on January 12, 2010 after going to church at St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe Farms. She was found dead 70 days later,(Photo: Eric Seals Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

It has been eight years since JoAnn Matouk Romain's body was discovered in the Detroit River.

Police called it a suicide. Her daughter said she was murdered in a cover-up and filed a lawsuit.

In the end, a federal judge concluded that while the woman's death remains "a mystery" shrouded in "very disturbing" facts — there isn't proof of an actual cover-up.

But Michelle Romain of Grosse Pointe Woods isn't giving up — hell-bent on proving that her mother was killed and that someone in law enforcement protected the killer.

"Her death will not be in vain. We will move forward and fight for her justice until the end," Romain told the Free Press on Tuesday, almost a week after the judge dismissed her $100 million lawsuit against the Grosse Pointe Woods and Grosse Pointe Farms police departments.

"While the circumstances surrounding Ms. Romain’s disappearance and death remain a mystery, and in fact are somewhat suspicious, the court concludes that (the) plaintiff fails to create a genuine issue of material fact to hold (police) liable," U.S. District Judge Linda Parker wrote in her March 7 opinion.

Parker, who oversaw the contentious case that included thousands of documents, dozens of depositions, Coast Guard and pathology reports, concluded that there was no evidence that someone who wanted to kill Romain knew that police would cover it up.

"The case ended as it should have ended -- dismissed," said Grosse Pointe Farms Police Lt. Rich Rosati, who has long maintained that Romain's death was a suicide.

"They could not present any evidence because there is no evidence of police collusion 'cause it didn’t happen," Rosati told the Free Press Tuesday.

While Judge Parker exonerated the police, she noted the following: "This Court acknowledges that there are disputed facts in this matter that are very disturbing and to this day remain unresolved."

Michelle Romain is appealing to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the judge's opinion gave her some hope.

"I felt that she knew something was wrong," Romain said.

Romain's attorney, Keith Altman of the 1-800-lawfirm in Southfield, added: "We think that the court acknowledged that there were some questions. ... We will see what the 6th Circuit has to say about it."

A family picture of JoAnn Matouk Romain taken in 2008.(Photo: Family photo)

JoAnn Matouk Romain, 55, disappeared on Jan. 12, 2010, after attending an evening prayer service at St. Paul’s Church along Lake Shore Drive in Grosse Pointe Farms. Police found her SUV abandoned in the church driveway and said she left her purse, wallet and cash in her car, walked through the church parking lot, crossed Lake Shore Drive and entered the icy lake and disappeared.

Fisherman found her body 70 days later, about 30 miles away, floating in the Detroit River.

Her death was ruled a suicide, with police claiming that she had a history of mental illness and suicidal tendencies.

But Michelle Romain protested and filed a lawsuit, alleging that her mother was abducted from church and dumped into the water near Belle Isle over some "personal vendetta" against a relative. The suit challenged the time line of the police investigation and search efforts.

According to those records, the Coast Guard received a phone call requesting a search for JoAnn Romain at 9:30 p.m. on the day she disappeared, but police didn't run the LEIN check that kicked off the investigation until a half hour later. Michelle Romain also claimed a police officer showed up at her house roughly a half hour before her mother was actually declared missing.

According to the lawsuit, a long list of clues contradicted the suicide theory, including:

There was no hole in the ice.

The footprints in the snow that police found leading to the water matched those of a large athletic or business attire shoe, not the size 5, high-heeled boots her mother wore that night.

There was no current that could have pushed her mother's body 30 miles.

Two forensics experts, including a University of Michigan pathologist, determined it was a dry drowning — which means there was no water in her lungs when her body was found and that her breathing was compromised before she entered the water.

An autopsy by the U-M pathologist showed bruises on her upper arm on which she carried her purse, and the handles on the designer purse she carried that night were torn, suggesting a struggle.

Two of JoAnn's doctors, her three children, a sister and friends said she had no history of mental illness or suicidal tendencies, as police claimed.

Police, however, have long maintained that JoAnn Matouk Romain committed suicide, and believe the family has been too upset to deal with that.

“We firmly believe that she committed suicide. We believe that the evidence at the scene corroborates that," Rosati said in 2016, stressing police did their due diligence.

"Nothing that has been presented to us has proven to be foul play," Rosati said. "We have followed up on all leads — contrary to what has been said — but we have not found anything that would substantiate the presence of foul play."